Opposites Attract (REUPLOADED)
by WrittenInShadows
Summary: Nic is a straight A student & Conrad is a troublemaker. So when the two are paired together for a biology assignment Nic assumes she'll be left to do all the work but is surprised when he agrees to work on it with her. The two get close but things threaten to tear them apart family issues, a "harmless" bet between friends & one night that is sure to change everything(crosspost AO3)
1. Where It All Begins

**It's short and unedited. I had to reupload because it was encrypted. Hopefully this works**

Just another Monday in biology and the time seemed to pass by slowly for all the students, that is until the teacher caught them off guard. "Alright class I've decided that instead of a midterm paper I'm going to give you all an assignment" this earns a collective groan from the class. "Don't worry I'll be splitting you all into groups of two and you will start to work on it today in class"

The students all looked slightly more relieved that they would be in pairs but Nic just seemed annoyed as she went and sat next to Conrad at the back of the class. He was the last person she wanted to be paired with. "Don't worry I'll do all the work but could you at least try and look busy so we don't fail" the annoyance was clear in her tone.

"Don't flatter yourself blondie. I'm not putting the fate of my grades in your hands" he said as he opened his biology book, it was the only subject he seemed to pay attention to at this point. Not that he really needed to, he was doing well in school even without studying he just seemed to have a naturally high IQ.

"My name's not blondie" she rolled her eyes. /p

"Well maybe if you had actually introduced yourself before being a bitch I could use your actual name"

"Nicolette" she replied as if he had asked her a question.

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" he smiled a little. "I'm Conrad by the way"

"Let's just get this done so we can go back to ignoring each other's existence shall we?"

They got to work, Conrad was strangely intrigued by her, she was different to the other girls at school, they all annoyed him and all though Nic got to him it was in a different kind of way. He wanted to get to know her and the fact that she was beautiful also helped things. Some of his friends looked over to him making obscene gestures and glancing at Nic, which annoyed Conrad more than it should have, he felt sort of protective of her which was strange. He didn't even know this girl..why should he care...No. He didn't care, he wouldn't let himself care because he had learned the hard way that caring only gets you hurt and he wasn't ready to get hurt.. not again.

As everyone filed out of the classroom Conrad stopped Nic, they were last out. She looked at him clearly bothered that she would be late for her next class but also a hint of excitement. "I meant what I said about doing my part. We can meet in the park after school tomorrow" then he walked off before she even had time to respond.


	2. Hidden Vulnerabilities

**This is the second chapter. Also unedited but it's posted from AO3 so I had to reupload. Hope you enjoy.**

Nic woke early inmorning and got dressed for school like she did every other day, she woke her sister then went downstairs to make breakfast. She noticed her dad had passed out on the couch again, she began cleaning up the empty beer bottles while she waited for the food to cook. Since her mom had died her dad had completely changed, he turned to alcohol to cope which made him cruel...a different person to the man Nic once knew. Yet despite all that Nic still had a deep love for her father, she still remembered the man he used to be and it was hard to let that go.

She handed her sister a plate when she came downstairs then went back to wake her father. She tapped him gently. "Hey..dad.. I made you some breakfast" she tried not to sound as nervous as she felt but her voice did shake a little. He sat up and took the plate from her without even showing appreciation.

"Get me a beer" he said before he starting eating.

"But don't you think you-"

"Now!" he yelled, causing her to jump slightly. She quickly got up and went to the kitchen to get him a beer. She knew what consequences would await her if she didn't. However when she opened the fridge she felt her heart drop, there was no beer left. She stood there frozen for a moment until his voice yelling at her to hurry up snapped her back to reality. She rushed back into the living room just hoping that today she would catch him in a generous mood. She slowly walked back into the room.

"There was n-none l-left" she couldn't hold her stutter. He stood up, she looked up seeing him tower over her and she shut her eyes anticipating the beating that was sure to come. Whenever he ran out he would always accuse her of stealing from him and so he would punish her. Today however he let her go with a slap across the face and a warning. She rushed off to school as quickly as she could. School was her escape from everything.

Conrad on the other hand was skipping school again and when his father found out he was less than thrilled because the school threatened to kick him out. His dad decided it was time to take things into his own hands. He took him home and beat him severely, simply stating that he had no other choice and he seemed to genuinely believe that but that was no comfort to Conrad as he lay on the floor silently hoping to slip into unconsciousness.

Later that day Nic sat on a park bench with her books open and ready to go, she waited for Conrad to show up, she didn't really expect him to show up but she was still disappointed when she realised he wasn't coming She began packing up her things but stopped when she sensed soemome standing over her. She looked up to see Conrad standing there, he looked beat up and exhausted. He had a black eye and had dry blood just beneath his nose. She gently pulled him down so he was sitting down beside her "What happened to you?" she spoke softly to him.

"Nothing. I got into a fight. Can we just do the stupid project Now" she could tell by the way he said that, that there was more to this than he was letting on.

"Who hurt you?"

"No one" he stood up to leave but she pulled him back down a bit firmer this time.

"Conrad. If someone is hurting you, you need to tell someone"

"I'm handling it"

"I don't think you are. My guess is your dad did this, I've seen you two fighting outside the principals office and I assume you came straight here to get away from him" she said this because she knew from experience. Then seeing the pain in his eyes, that look as if he were just ready to cry, the first real sense of emotion she got from him...She knew it must be bad. She shoved her books in her bag and gently pulled him up. "Come on. Let's get you cleaned up" she didn't take no for an answer either, she kept hold of his hand the entire time in case he would try to leave. She saw a different side to him that day.. something she hadn't expected.


	3. Emotional Walls

Nic and Conrad had been getting closer and they worked on their project throughout the weekend but when she saw him in school on Monday something was different, he was different. "Hey" she said as she passed him in the hallway but he didn't even acknowledge her. She tried not to let that hurt but really it did. They were just starting to have a friendship and now he was just acting like she didn't even exist. She thought maybe it was just to keep up a "reputation" so she tried not to take it too personally.

It was only as she saw him walking home from school and tried to talk with him when no one was around that she realised this wasn't about reputation at all. This was something else..She gently grabbed hold hand to stop him from walking away from her. "Why are you avoiding me?"

"Just because we're lab partners doesn't mean we're friends" he gently pulled away from her. "If I had known you were going to be this clingy about it I would have just avoided you" he walked on up ahead of her.

That really hurt but she tried not to let it, it made her feel pathetic. Why should she care so much she knew him but it's jist how she was, how she'd always been. Her mom had always said she had a big heart and that it was better to feel too much than to not feel at all.

She got home and her dad was passed out as usual, she started cleaning up, the place was a complete mess. Really she didn't have the emotional strength to deal with all this today. She dumped in the sink and got ready to start dinner. She checked the fridge it was empty as usual. She went to her room and took some money that she had been saving from her job at a local pizza place..She decided she would just order some since she had an employee discount and she couldn't really afford much else.

Today was just one of those days where she really just felt tired, tired of school, of her house, of life in general.

The more she thought about it the more she realised she didn't really have any good friends. Conrad ignoring her only hurt so much because the past few days with him made her feel less alone. Now she was back to being alone for the most part. It seemed people didn't really see her but he had and that was something she had longed for, for quite some time. She sighed out of frustration the more she thought about it the angrier she got with herself. She felt like she was acting completely insane.

There was a knock at the door, the pizza had arrived early. She paid the guy who had attempted to make small talk and then shut the door before he could try and start a conversation with her. This wasn't really like her but she was under a lot of stress. She took a slice of pizza for herself then closed the box, leaving a note for Jessie telling her to heat it up in the microwave and that she would be home later. She really just couldn't stay in that house.

She went for a walk and found a nice quiet park bench to sit at to start her homework. She focused on getting her homework done but her mind kept drifting back to Conrad and that frustrated her to no end. Seeing him walk towards her direction made her heart flutter while simultaneously rising a hatred within her. She stood up and stopped him before he could just pretend she didn't exist again. "Why do you do that?"

"Do what?" he asked, completely oblivious to what she meant or why this really bothered her so much.

"Act like you don't see me. Like I don't even exist" she was letting her emotions get the best of her, it wasn't about the school girl crush or the fact that she had felt a connection it was that he was the first person who understood her and he decided to just pretend that it didn't matter. That she didn't matter.

"I told you we're not friends" he said quietly although his eyes were saying something completely different.

"That's not the point. You're sweet and smart and you could really go places if you stopped acting like an asshole for long enough to let someone actually care about you. We don't need to be friends. I'm not even sure I would want to be friends with you but you could have had some common decency" she pushed past him and sat back down on the bench. He was going to follow her when one of his friends approached.

"You know she's probably gonna follow you around like a lost puppy all year. You should take advantage of that. Firstly if she made an effort she would actually be hot and secondly crazy girls are great in bed" he smirked. Conrad glanced back to Nic, she really was beautiful both inside and out but that's exactly why he needed to stay away.

"I'm not interested"

"You sure seem interested to me" the guy pointed out. Conrad just rolled his eyes and walked on ahead of him. He couldn't let himself get involved. He wasn't ready for a relationship, he already knew he couldn't give her what she wanted but that didn't stop him from thinking about her...


	4. Starting Over

**Hope you enjoy! Let me know your thoughts**

Nic and Conrad hadn't seen each other much over the next few days but they couldn't avoid each other forever they were going to be doing all their biology assignments together for the year. They would have see each other eventually and they did the next week in their Monday biology class. Nic was reluctant to sit next to him, she had debated on asking the teacher if she could work with someone else but she knew he would probably say no and she decided there was no reason for her to be childish about it. She found it difficult to to focus in the class so when the bell rang she was relieved to get out of there. "I'll meet you after school so we can get this over with. I'll be waiting so don't waste my time by being late" she said before walking off without giving him a chance to say anything.

He showed up and met her outside the school, his friends whistled and stared at Nic as the two left together, it made her really uncomfortable and she didn't really understand how Conrad could be friends with guys like that. "Why do you waste your time with people like that?" she asked once they were out of the group's earshot.

He shrugged. "They're fun. No one actually likes their high school friends. You just find people you can tolerate and you work with it"

"Wow. I don't think that's at all how it works" Nic was surprised, it seemed he constantly surprised her. He was the kind of guy who could talk to anyone, everyone got along with him and there was never a day that went by where he wasn't within a large group of people, he never sat alone at lunch but it only occurred to her now that he could be surrounded by people and still be lonely. She knew from her own experiences that you can be surrounded by so many people and feel so alone.

"See that's why you're not popular. Everyone in high school . You're too genuine. People are just going to take advantage of you"

She wasn't sure why but when he said that it really bothered her and that became clear pretty quickly. "I can take care of myself. I don't need your advice you're not the expert"

"Maybe not but I'm also not blind. I see the way your "friends" treat you. They're using you"

"That's not true"

"Oh really? Then why do you only seem to be with them when they need help with homework or when they just want to treat you like their own personal secretary"

"Shut up. You don't know anything about my friends" she was angry but mostly because he was right, she didn't have any real friends but it made her feel better to know he didn't either, which kind of made her feel like a bad person. The difference between them was that he didn't let people use him or walk all over him the way she did.

"I know that you're alone"

"Well so are you" she said quietly, she could feel herself getting upset and she wasn't quite sure why, maybe because the reality of her depressing situation just hurt. "You've got all these people you call friends but you don't even care about them and I don't think they even know the real you. Just the stereotypical fuck boy they think you are"

"So? Unlike you I don't need other people's approval to be happy" the tension between the two was at an all time high and Conrad was annoyed with her, she made him feel, it was so easy to push aside his feelings with anyone else but with her.. she had a way of getting to him, seeing through him. It was easier to push her away than to just let her in. "It's kind of pathetic. Your whole life revolves around seeking approval from people who don't even give a shit about you. Stop wasting your time. Get a hobby"

This angered her but mostly it hurt, because it was all so true. She was so unsecure, so anxious. She did her best to appear confident but it seemed he could see through her aswell. She felt the tears streaming down her face before she could even stop them. She hated that, she hated how could never hide her feelings. She quickly walked ahead of him, almost running to avoid facing him, she stopped when she had reached the park bench where they had met before. She sat down and out her head in her hands as she cried.

Conrad caught up to her within a few minutes. He sat down on the bench beside her and without needing to say anything he genrly put his arms around her and held her close. She leaned into him gently, too upset right now to really care that she had been mad at home. Of course it hadn't just been from what he had said. Things had been hard lately and she had been holding in so much, assuring Jessie that everything would be okay. She always had to be strong for her.

After awhile she gently moved away from him. "You probably think I'm crazy now" she laughed a little but there was a sadness in her eyes and the tears were still flowing.

He gently wiped her tears. "Maybe just a little" he smiled a little which kind of lightened the heavy situation for a moment. "I'm sorry I didn't realise you would take it this hard"

"It's not about that...Well I mean not completely"

"What's it about then?"

"I'd tell you but we're not friends remember?" she said quietly before opening her school bag and retrieving her biology book. She opened it on the page they needed for their homework but he shut it and put it aside.

"I think maybe I misjudged you and I know for a fact that you've misjudged me so how about we just start over?"

"I'd like that"


End file.
